To the editor:

It was rather amusing to read in the March 27 Journal-World how the Americans for Prosperity representative claimed it was “disingenuous” when challenged by a school board member at a town hall meeting regarding AFP’s opposition to the Lawrence school district’s proposed bond. What’s truly disingenuous are the actions of AFP and their extremist political ideology.

One need only to look back to last year when AFP, with the help of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, supported a purge of moderate Republicans that didn’t fit their conservative ideology. Groups like AFP have long advocated a systematic defunding of public education and social service programs, as evidenced by the current AFP-supported actions of the state Legislature.

If the state Legislature had fulfilled its fiscal obligations to the state’s schools (secondary and post-secondary), the proposed bond may have been significantly smaller. Didn’t AFP also oppose the expansion of the Lawrence Public Library?

What AFP fails to understand is that Lawrence is a community and, as such, we support the well-being of this community, which includes the support of our schools, among other things. History has repeatedly demonstrated that an extremist ideology will fail. It’s just too bad that many Kansans will suffer until that time.